June 17th, 2008

Blogging News, WordPress Templates WordPress Skins WordPress Themes

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Tags: design, elegant, simple, WordPress

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Comments

Jeff Waugh (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 6:48 pm

Mark Pilgrim’s http://diveintomark.org/ is an inspiration in thoughtful web design concision.
James D Kirk (6 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 6:56 pm

Am I missing something here? That’s just a WP blog running on top of the Sandbox theme (2 columns left). Wouldn’t it be better to highlight the simplicity of Sandbox (and at the same time the complexity that it can be developed into!) Guess I just need to pay more attention to the blogosphere and less on trying to secure financing!
Moni (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 7:36 pm

i have never been a fan of simple blogs. Well structured blogs yes, not so much empty ones that lack even a decent nav. I like to see robust blogs with a lot of into on them, everything within reach, a click away, like http://www.yankodesign.com or even simple, to the point info displaying blogs like http://www.shoutingzone.com/blog

I’m not sure if these both are original blog designs but I’m using them as example, rather than my own. Anyway, good post, nice food for thought there.
Gudowski (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 8:10 pm

I really love: http://www.i-phone3g.eu/

Simple and Clean. And Apple
Chris (26 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 8:39 pm

The first one I thought of: plaintxt.org. They distribute some really high quality “simple” themes.
Chris Albon (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 8:43 pm

Not to toot my own horn, but I tired hard to make simple, timeless layout:

http://warandhealth.com/
Rick Beckman (15 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 8:54 pm

Depends on how you define “simple”; stylistically, sure, Lloyd’s site is simple; but what if “simple” doesn’t apply to style? His site still has all the bells & whistles of any other WordPress site — full featured sidebar, posts, meta information on the posts, comments, and so on.
shawal (4 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 9:51 pm

If you want simple, i suggest wordpress default theme….
randy (6 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 10:06 pm

79Leaves, easy to read and too the point.
Jennifer (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 10:08 pm

Simple and even zen-like is very nice. I’ve got my eyes open for the perfect ‘simple’ design. But the linked example is rather frightening actually – it looks more like what happens why CSS is disabled.
Rhine (1 comments.) says:

6/17/2008 at 10:54 pm

Any WordPress blog using Azeem Azeez’s beautiful and elegant theme White as Milk would get my vote. It’s simple, loads fast, and places emphasis where it should be: Content. It’s so clean that I use it for my own blog.

Azeem’s own site uses a fairly simple design that he created himself:
http://www.azeemazeez.com/blogs/

I’ve seen some amazing and elaborate designs for WordPress but all the bells and whistles and pretty colors don’t amount to bupkis if you don’t have regular quality content.

For non-Wordpress simplicity, check out McSweeney’s:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

Content rules.
Keith says:

6/17/2008 at 11:44 pm

I love DisPics, just pictures of Disney theme parks, very simple, very well done:

http://www.dispics.com
Arun (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 12:54 am

I love the Minimalism of Daring Fireball which is one of the sites with dark background which look lovely. I think it is on Moveable Type and not Worpress, however the author has a writeup on how started with a blank xhtml structure rather than modify an existing template. I think this is a good approach for a simple design.
erm says:

6/18/2008 at 2:03 am

Yeah, I’m not sure I’d call sandbox “simple”, per se.

The web seems to be having difficulty increasing the specificity of data without munging up presentation and necessary information.

Not sure that was clear, but I’m working on something.
Abhijit (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 2:10 am

I vote for any blog based on these themes –

*
* , which incidentally I use too.
Ilya says:

6/18/2008 at 2:17 am

I love http://www.redaktora.net based on Sapphire 1.0.
Jeff (11 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 2:30 am

Oh, oo, oo! Me!

Jeff’s Site
PJ Brunet (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 2:40 am

I started with Simplr. Spent years cleaning it out, line-by-line. Took out all the widget junk, categories, meta info, moved most of the CSS inline, cleaned out lots of PHP code, dropped id/class tags, reduced style.css to 14 lines, redesigned the comments, stuff like that. Clean means more pageviews and better CTR. Cut to the chase
wpGuy (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:05 am

I’m not 100% sure it’s built on WordPress but… http://astheria.com/
Kristin (4 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:11 am

I think nothing beats the Norwegian blog http://bza.no/ when it comes to simple, clean design.
Shanker Bakshi (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:30 am

Wrong Choice – Mine is the simplest of all. Just Post and comments no distructions in between
akagitano says:

6/18/2008 at 3:36 am

I’m always looking for simple design. Now I’m working on contentandcode.org inspired by powazek.com.
Pi (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:44 am

Weblogs using the Nishta theme are easy to use and very simple in design: http://cmdai.com and http://grafschaft-hoya.org are examples.
John Baker (15 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 4:32 am

There’s some good stuff here. I spent a long time just looking at Daring Fireball, which is beautifully designed. My choice is Paul Stamatiou’s 281, on which my own site is based.
Viktor Persson says:

6/18/2008 at 4:48 am

I created a plain and soft styled wp-theme some months ago that somone might enjoy: Winterplain.
Tom (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 5:00 am

I’ve tried to keep my own new blog as simple as possible (it’s all about the pictures, and not the frame)… thanks to WordPress for providing such a powerful tool!
http://www.thomas-sing.de/wp/
Sly says:

6/18/2008 at 5:30 am

Very fast ant light template.
http://www.silviuromano.com/
Addy (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 5:37 am

Simple is such a subjective term.

I love blogs which keep everything to a minimum in terms of advertising, sidebar content and focus on the writing and posts.

A great example for me would be one I stumbled across today
http://heartfullofnapalm.wordpress.com/
which has a simple feel but it’s content is about as far from simple as you can get.

Really well written, puts a lot of blogs (including my own) to shame.
Darran (9 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 6:21 am

How’s this for simple? My own blog design which have been ‘criticised’ for being plain and simple.
Drew Vogel (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 6:25 am

I think my site, http://www.drewvogel.com, is pretty simple!
Harry (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 6:50 am

My blog is simple in its visual style. The design I most admire is perhaps Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction, but it’s Movable Type rather than WordPress.
seemysexygf.com (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 7:08 am

This is far from “simple”/. In my opinion, a simple blog would display nicely on text based browsers such as lynx/elinks.
Dave Coveney (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 7:33 am

I did a very simple variation of Moo for Sandbox to build my photoblog at http://www.davesgonemental.com/photoblog/ – I just moved the sidebars to the bottom to give the content more space to breathe. I also messed around slightly with some other css. Could release it, I suppose… Anyone want it, just say.
Sachin Gopal (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 8:46 am

I’ll say sachingopal.com. Brutally Minimal
KimCool (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 8:49 am

Luo’Blog I think the blog is simple
Thomas Wright (3 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 10:20 am

Without being mean, I was somewhat taken aback by http://shankerbakshi.com/
@Shanker Bakshi: Whilst it’s a lovely looking site, it’s not exactly ‘simple’ in the same way as the others.
Just my 2c.
Latterlig! (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 10:31 am

I guess http://spesiell.org is quite clean? (Yes, I know, it has both rounded corners and ads, but the overall look is quite clean anyway?)
Jesus Is Extravagant (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 11:05 am

–
http://www.rikcatindustries.com/
http://www.peter-rozek.de/

not sure if they’re exclusive wp…but, some great design ideas.
paul (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 11:25 am

http://2pt3.com is pretty simple too.
Matt G. (7 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 11:37 am

I think these 2 by http://www.wpdiva.com/themes/ are hot:

http://www.wpdiva.com/themes/3.....ments.html

http://www.wpdiva.com/themes/2.....-back.html
J Kenneth King says:

6/18/2008 at 12:09 pm

Well, a little shameless self-promotion:

http://agentultra.com
Edward Guillen (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 12:12 pm

I just hacked the Hemingway Reloaded theme and made it very very simple.
http://www.schmeddy.com
Nile (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 12:30 pm

http://tribalost.net few modifications I’ve made with Brajeshwar
Richard Ginn (4 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 12:33 pm

If all you did on your main blog page was just ultra simple text, that would be the simplest WordPress blog ever.

Just the p tag with no extra attributes.
Ulysses Ronquillo (15 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 1:34 pm

Try my theme. Not released yet. Uses Ajax accordion. Preview here.
http://ulyssesonline.com/theme.....lack-Green
Rebecca (3 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 2:41 pm

I kinda like mine (if I’m allowed to anyway hehe) http://miss604.com
Will (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 2:58 pm

Voltage Blog at Voltage Creative is a nice blog about marketing and design. The blog itself is very clean, accentuating content and nicely separating it from everything else in the sidebar.

http://www.voltagecreative.com/blog/

(Full disclosure: I work there and help design the thing.)
Charlie Stout (6 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:24 pm

I modified The Gathering theme for WordPress to use as a catogorized photoblog/portfolio of my work: Charlie Stout Photography
Jan (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 3:26 pm

The simplest blog design: http://www.agenturblog.de/
And a simple, but appealing wordpress-theme is pocketT: http://www.nyssajbrown.net/pockett/?page_id=13
Gunslinger (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 4:46 pm

I personally agree with Moni. I have always been about shine. I feel like your website should be a personal representation of yourself. It is the one way you can put yourself on the net, everyone can get to know you, what your like, and what your interests are, all in one look. Simple website designs, such as listed above, are boring. I would rather wait an extra couple seconds, and be aw struck, than load really fast and be bored.

However, with that said, there is a Simple design, that I have come acrossed, that somewhat aw struck me, Look wise. That is WordPress.org The design is simple, and yet has substance.
joseph (2 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 5:09 pm

My blog (http://ousep.com) is using a fairly simple one… I’m still working on refining it though.

But if you’re thinking of blah-looking blogs, any blog still on an unmodified Kubrick wins by a mile. It’s a good design, no doubt… but nevertheless.
Martin Fredriksson (1 comments.) says:

6/18/2008 at 6:49 pm

Mine is wicked simple.

http://www.martinfredriksson.se
Leefe (4 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 2:08 am

Simple yes. And the content may be interesting. But it looks more like someone forgot to upload the CSS file for their blog theme. Very barren and no division in the layout. Makes the advertising less distinguishable from the other links in the sidebar I suppose.
evan (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 2:32 am

I use (here) a theme called Third from here. Very clean and elegant.
Roni (9 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 2:33 am

Simpler better, but first look lead to brand your blog. Play with CSS may be one of many way to make your blog simpler
Sarah Moore says:

6/19/2008 at 4:31 am

This post mentions ‘design’ but many of the submissions are just plain text with absolutely no design or colour??? I came across this blog http://www.perlina.co.uk/blog when I purchased a pair of earrings. The layout is simple and easy to navigate with nice colours.
As an internet ‘surfer’ I do believe that a nice looking blog helps me to decide in a second whether I’m going to keep reading or if I’m going to close my browser.

Sarah
mini-d (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 6:12 am

Shameless selfadversiting: You can use I HAEV STYEL theme, wich is quite minimal and really very polished.
Allan Cole (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 10:00 am

Hands down, the simplest theme design i’ve seen is Upstart Blogger’s Stripped theme. It quite literally strips everything down to the content.

Stripped is a new one column, ultra minimalist, text and content focussed wordpress theme. Too many blogs have too much clutter. Stripped solves the problem by giving your readers the content they crave without forcing them to go hunting around the page for it.
Richard Ginn (4 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 12:14 pm

Poster 50 is real close to the simplest Wordpess blog ever.
roland (2 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 12:23 pm

Although my weblog has obviously sort of a minimalistic design, I also know it’s ugly on the other site.

I just have that “design” because of the easy use of templates etc. and I’m too lazy and dumb for more complex ones…
sanjay (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 2:37 pm

And this one is one of the beautiful themes that i hav seen http://blog.kannada-greetings.com
Yasser (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 2:45 pm

I love the Buryy theme form GFXedit it is simple and elegant.
Leon P (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 3:47 pm

erm – mine?
Kirk Sinclair (1 comments.) says:

6/19/2008 at 5:36 pm

I don’t know if this is legal, but my web log is about as simple as it gets. With a tag line of Merit – Wisdom – Harmony, the precise intent is to be simple.
shamess (1 comments.) says:

6/20/2008 at 2:42 am

The problem with really simple blogs is sometimes they just look like spam blogs; clicking through a few of the ones listed above, if I had just stumbled across those I would have left immediately thinking I’d just come across a spam site.
Peter Ricci (1 comments.) says:

6/20/2008 at 7:41 am

I think http://www.business2.com.au is clean and simple.
Stephen Babtridge says:

6/20/2008 at 7:59 am

Simple, effective, perhaps a little too orange, but i really love this blog (which i think is still fairly fledgling): ConsumerChoices Blog

The subject matter is dry, but the design and editorial angle make it a daily read for me.

I dunno, i just think it’s cool.
Kevin (1 comments.) says:

6/20/2008 at 7:37 pm

I recently applied a new custom theme I designed to my WordPress blog.

It looks nice but there’s not much content!

You can find it here: http://www.codealchemy.com/
HerBigIdea ~ Elaine says:

6/20/2008 at 11:15 pm

I use PopBlue3 by http://www.blogohblog.com/

It’s really simple, check it out: http://herbigidea.com
Anshul (2 comments.) says:

6/21/2008 at 1:27 am

I think my blog, Brainstuck.com is the simplest blog, cartoon blog actually.
paskal (2 comments.) says:

6/21/2008 at 3:15 am

hurm… maybe Rapplesnut should be here too. i like the simplicity of the site…
oxide (1 comments.) says:

6/21/2008 at 8:10 am

I tried to create as simple a layout as possible using wordpress.

Everything Hurts
cel mai misto tip din Romania says:

6/21/2008 at 8:20 am

I like to think that i have a simple but interesting theme: Andrei
dan (4 comments.) says:

6/21/2008 at 3:42 pm

simple blogs are nice and cool but too simple can be a bad thing. when I first started blogging I wanted the flashiest site with all the fancy plugins and mods until I realized it was a waste and started to work backwards trying to simplify my site
Easher (1 comments.) says:

6/21/2008 at 6:27 pm

I’ve yet to fnd a site as such, though I kinda like http://www.rappelsnut.de/. I do love simplicity, can’t stand eleaborate themes.
stilts says:

6/22/2008 at 1:48 am

http://www.myblogsetup.com and http://www.foolswisdom.com are pretty simple
Haven (1 comments.) says:

6/22/2008 at 7:11 am

http://www.liferefinement.com is simple, but its about to receive a redesign so it may not stay this simple in a few days.
matthew (1 comments.) says:

6/22/2008 at 12:22 pm

I would say mine is pretty darn simple and clean!
stalkerX says:

6/25/2008 at 8:30 am

Very simple: http://www.apfelzeug.de
brad (1 comments.) says:

6/25/2008 at 6:51 pm

Can we vote for ourselves? my Passion Project is a new community WordPress blog about what people love to do in their free time! I tried to keep it very simple, clean and easy to use.

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Umm | 79Leaves says:

6/18/2008 at 10:11 am

[…] this theme was put into weblogtooscollection by a […]
WeblogToolsCollection Español » Archivo del Blog » Lo Mejor de WLTC - Parte 1 says:

12/30/2008 at 4:33 pm

[…] ¿Cuál es el Blog de WordPress más sencillo que viste? […]

About the Author

Mark Ghosh
An avid fan of business, education, technology and finance. I lead a lean, highly focussed and capable team of Java Back End developers and Front End developers through a maze of complex software wizardry to fulfill the web maintenance needs of a large chemical manufacturer. As per Myers-Briggs Personality Types, I am an ESTJ. I pride in a project completed on time and according to plan. My hobbies include all kinds of technology, anything that I can taste and anything that goes fast or flies in the air. I like to read business books and comics in my spare time.
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